1. Field of Invention
This invention generally relates to identification of wireless users and, more particularly, to locating seats using wireless devices in an airplane.
2. Related Art
In current airplanes, passengers can activate devices/indicators and communicate with the flight crew through various mechanisms, such as buttons or other controls located overhead, along the seat console, in front of the seat, or other convenient locations. With wireless communication technology becoming more accepted and widespread, communication between passengers in seats and airplane systems is being implemented using wireless technology, such as 802.11 protocols. However, in order to use wireless communication to activate seat-specific devices (such as reading lights and flight attendant call lights), the physical location of the seat unit needs to be known, in addition to any logical addressing assignments (such as IP address). For example, when a reading light button is pressed, the system must know which light to activate; hence, it must know the seat client's physical location.
In wired communication systems, seat unit location identification has been accomplished through existing serial data communication lines along a column of seats. In such systems, seat units transmit location information along the lines sequentially, e.g., from the first seat in the column to the last seat. However, such techniques cannot be used with wireless systems, due in part to the lack of wired communication lines in wireless systems.
Therefore, there is a need for identifying seat units in a wireless system that overcomes the disadvantages of conventional techniques discussed above.